IS kills 19 regime fighters in east Syria: monitor

Jihadists from the Islamic State group have killed at least 19 pro-government fighters in a spate of attacks in eastern Syria, a monitoring group said Sunday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attacks over the past 24 hours struck in and around the town of Albu Kamal, near the border with Iraq. IS has largely been defeated since storming across the region in 2014, but still clings to pockets of territory in eastern Syria and maintains the ability to launch deadly attacks.